The Damontre Moore chapter ended yesterday in a shambles. There are no winners. The writing was on the wall earlier this season when Moore went two consecutive games with utterly huge late hits on the QB. Call them selfish. Undisciplined. Immature. I’m no psychologist but it’s a tremendous waste of talent.
The Eagles game was an absolute killer. The Giants come out like a house on fire. They take a quick 7-0 lead. Driving again. Larry Donnell ends a drive with a strip turnover at the Eagles 23. The Eagles get the ball but it’s a 3 and out. Noooo. Moore hits Bradford during the commercial break and the Eagles get the ball back. The team lets down, allows a score, and what was Q1 dominance has now slipped away. In the blink of an eye, what could’ve been 14-0 is now 7-7. A metaphor for the season.
The Giants, for their part, did all they could to keep this volatile player in control. They showed more restraint than me, choosing to bench him for a game. I was so irate that I was good cutting him right there. I mean, what do you do when a 3rd year player with all the potential in the world keeps shooting every direction except straight? He’s all engine and no transmission.
Wonder loved the draft pick. “Whatever ‘it’ is, he has it,” said UltimateNYG’s draft analyst. And we saw it, immediately. In his first preseason game he blocks a punt! This was the upside reward for a talented young man, who at the age of 20 had so much upside. He fell and Reese took a calculated risk at Round 3. We have been critical of Reese often enough on this NY Giants blog, and if you take him R2 you can crucify him. But Round 3 for a 20 year old with great pass rushing potential? I take that shot. If I hit, I’ve got 12 years of upside. Just to juxtapose, Aaron Ross as a Round 1 pick was 24 years old. With Moore, you think when you draft him that he can grow into his responsibilities.
The amount of QB pressure he could generate in limited snaps was great, but the coaches had to bring him along slowly because they couldn’t “trust” Damontre. Unstable? Pea brain? Immature? Maybe all three. Before the season, I was hoping Spagnuolo could reclaim Moore and tap the potential. Lord knows the Giants pass rush needed that. Reports surfaced that he had bad work habits and was combustible.
That volatility came to a head in an almost comical ending. Fellas- you can’t make this sh*t up… OBJ buys everyone $430 headphones, Cullen Jenkins takes 2 and Moore doesn’t get one. So the two of them have an “altercation” in the locker room. Millionaires fighting over baubles. Knuckleheads, both of them.
Jenkins, for being a class act, I fine him $15K for fighting and tell him he can reduce the fine in half by buying 20 of those damn headphones and delivering them to sick teens in hospitals who are slightly less fortunate. Moore, who had umpteen warnings, got what he deserved for making a mountain out of a mole hill… a one way ticket out of the organization.
George Young- “We are not in the business of well adjusted human beings.” Ain’t that the truth. It’s a sad ending for Mr. Moore, who will now try again with another NFL team that will give him a chance. Do not look back, Giants fans. That ship has sailed. Whether or not Moore realizes his potential elsewhere, he was not doing it with the Giants. Next.
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